Front month cotton prices ended the Friday session off the highs, though had kept 1 to 23 poitn gains for the bell. The March contract finished on a net 81 point loss for the week. The Dec contract closed the first trade week of the new year a net 7 points below last Friday.
CFTC’s weekly data showed cotton spec traders were 541 contracts more net short through the week that ended 1/2. Spec trader OI dropped 3.4k contracts for the week. The weekly data release also had the commercials 953 contracts more net short at 40,729.
USDA’s Export Sales data showed 131,100 RBs of cotton was shipped for the week ending 12/28. That was down 65% for the week and was 24% below the 4-wk average. China was the top buyer for the week. USDA’s FAS data had commitments at 8.623 million RBs.
The Seam reported 7,737 bales were sold online on 1/3 for an average gross price of 72.82. The Cotlook A Index was 91.40 on 1/2, UNCH from the day prior. The AWP was up by another 80 points to 64.96 cents/lb.
Mar 24 Cotton closed at 80.19, up 7 points,
May 24 Cotton closed at 81.35, up 3 points,
Jul 24 Cotton closed at 82.15, up 3 points
Source: barchart.com